50+ more Wisconsin schools, districts awarded safety grants, yet $45M remains unspent

WAUWATOSA -- Fifty-two more schools, districts were awarded grant money on Monday, July 9 as part of the push to make schools in Wisconsin safer. Despite more schools being awarded money, a massive surplus remains.

Brad Schimel

"Schools are really clamoring for more training opportunities, and we're going to focus on using some of that money to bring training to the schools," said Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel.

Schimel announced on Monday that more than $3.5 million in school safety grant funding was awarded to more than 50 schools, districts in the state -- schools like Christ King School in Wauwatosa.

Gina Brown

"We immediately knew we wanted to apply because safety measures can never be fully implemented with a school budget," said Gina Brown, principal of Christ King School.

But despite 94 percent of public school entities in the state applying for the grants, a massive surplus of roughly $45 million remains.

"They were just good stewards. They looked at what they needed to do that fit the grant criteria and it didn't come out to all the money," Schimel said.

The attorney general said the plan is for all of the money to get spent on schools to beef up their security -- doing things on their own and working with law enforcement.

"With that money, will we install shatterproof glass, security cameras and most importantly -- training and education for our teachers and staff," Brown said.

Acting Milwaukee County Sheriff Richard Schmidt

"The first thing it does is that it's going to help protect these buildings. Get the people inside the buildings trained so that they know exactly what to do if some type of assault happens on their school," said Acting Milwaukee County Sheriff Richard Schmidt.

In short, schools are already doing more to keep everyone safe, but all parties here recognize that more money can and will be spent.

Schimel also pointed out that there currently exists no universal standard for school resource officers. He said part of the money could be used to implement a standard and train officers based on those new rules.